Thousands of British Police Join Anti-Austerity Protest

Thousands of off-duty police officers took to the streets in London on Thursday in a rare display of anger against government austerity, joining a protest by public sector workers including immigration officials, healthcare workers and prison officers.

Unions predicted some 400,000 public sector workers would walk out, a smaller protest than in November when Britain saw the biggest strike in years, but a significant show of discontent just after Prime Minister David Cameron's government took a drubbing at local elections.

The government said only about 150,000 had taken part and dismissed the action as "futile". Cabinet Office minister Frances Maude said, "public services were mainly unaffected". However, the sight of some 30,000 police officers marching through London will be embarrassing for Cameron's centre-right Conservatives, who pride themselves on being the party of law and order. More...

Tens of thousands protest in Greece

reuters.com
Police clashed with stone-throwing youths in Athens on Thursday as tens of thousands of strikers protested against draconian cutbacks aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis shaking the euro zone.

World

In one central square hundreds of protesters hurled sticks and stones at riot police, who responded by baton-charging the crowd and firing several rounds of teargas.

The clashes came after more than 20,000 protesters marched through Athens beating drums and chanting slogans such as "Plutocrats must pay for the crisis" to mark the second general strike in two weeks.

Groups of anarchists threw petrol bombs, smashed shop windows, damaged cars, set garbage containers on fire and hurled lumps of marble torn from steps of the Bank of Greece.

Two protesters and 13 police officers were slightly wounded and 16 protesters detained, police said. But the level of violence was much lower than in 2008 riots that paralyzed Athens for weeks after the police killing of a teenager.

"Everybody is watching Greece to see the depth, intensity and sustainability of protests," said Theodore Couloumbis, deputy head of the ELIAMEP think-tank and a professor of international relations at the University of Athens.

"These protests are more than likely similar to the farmers' blockades earlier this year, which ran out of steam after a while," he said.

Participation in the Athens marches was slightly higher than in the previous nationwide strike on February 24 but not huge by Greek standards and much smaller than a 100,000-strong march against similar measures in the Irish capital last year.

"People understand we are going through difficult times," a senior government official said. By late afternoon, the streets had largely returned to normal.

EU politicians and credit rating agencies have broadly welcomed Greece's latest budget measures but have said quick and smooth delivery will be key to re-establishing the country's credibility diplomatically and as a borrower.

The cost of insuring Greek debt against default rose, as did the premium investors charge to hold Greek bonds rather than German benchmarks, as EU policymakers injected a dose of cold reality into talk of creating a European monetary fund.

Thursday's strikes were organized by labor unions representing half of the country's 5 million strong workforce, protesting cuts in civil servants' income, tax hikes, a pension freeze and plans to raise the retirement age.

The walkouts grounded flights, docked ships, shut schools and hospitals and halted public transport. Many archaeological sites and museums were closed to visitors and the publication of GDP and unemployment data was postponed.

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

There was no news on television and radio as journalists were on strike. Bank employees, firefighters, tax collectors and even some police officers were also among those marching. Unions are preparing further action in April and May.

Most Greeks believe that, despite the protests, the cash-strapped socialist government will press ahead with a budget plan agreed last week after months of wrangling with the EU and intense pressure from financial markets.

But the 4.8 billion euro ($6.5 billion) package of cutbacks is viewed by many as hitting the wrong people in a country with widespread corruption and tax evasion.

"The measures are unfair ... we cannot make it, we have children, families. We need to find the money to support them," said 60-year old health sector worker Odysseas Panagopoulos. "Banks and rich people should pay for this crisis."

Athens' streets echoed with loud-speakers blaring slogans calling for the rich to pay for the debt crisis. "No sacrifice for the rich!" protesters chanted holding banners reading: "Where did the money go?."

The general strike took place as EU policymakers are discussing ways to help the euro zone weakling.

Officials and unions gave widely diverging estimates of participation in the strikes. Interior ministry officials said about 15 percent of civil servants had walked out, while their union put the level at over 65 percent.

Last week's package, aimed at reassuring markets that Athens can handle a 300 billion euro debt mountain, came just 5 months after the socialists won an election on a promise to help the poor deal with Greece's first recession in 16 years.

"This government deceived us," said Zaharoula Toulia, a 57-year-old pensioner who lives on 800 euros a month and voted for the socialists. "They said there was money. Where is it?"

The New Debtors Prisons

Image by Melody Kramer via Flickr

Charles Hugh Smith
Local government is desperate for new funding but doesn't dare tap the wealthy. So they're busily criminalizing poverty and filling new Debtor's prisons.

Correspondent Jeff Ray sent in this story Milking the Poor: One Family's Fall Into Homelessness (The Atlantic) which is representative of the trend in local government to criminalize poverty for its own enrichment.

Here's the deal. Local government has grown fat in a decade of gargantuan capital gains and real rising real estate taxes. Employees pulling down over $100,000 each are legion, as are public retirees pulling down over $100,000 a year in pension payments. Local government has added 15% more employees even as population grew by a meager 3%. (The numbers may vary in your area but the percentages won't.)

Now the seven fat years are over and local government is not liking the seven lean years. Now that housing has plummeted, so have the tax rolls; capital gains have dried up and even sales tax revenues are crashing. Despite the usual bleatings of hope, the chances of tax revenues recovering are slightly lower than the proverbial snowball's chance of remaining frozen in Heck.

Foreclosures: 'Worst three months of all time' Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in the third quarter - a sign the plague is still spreading.

Meanwhile, a perfect storm is gutting public pension funds. More Pain for State's Taxpayers, Cities: CALPERS losses $50B. In order for the State amd local governments of California to meet their future pension obligations (paid by CALPERS, the massive public pension fund), they need to kick in hundreds of millions of dollars more in coming years, even as their revenues are falling.

The conclusion that the medical and pension benefits which were promised in the fat years are no longer payable is anathema to public unions and managerial staff alike, and so the machinery of local government has geared up to stripmine the citizens like a giant trawler stripmines the sea: parking tickets have been jacked up to $60 or more, traffic violations are in the hundreds of dollars, speed traps abound, and as noted in the top story, fees for "crimes" like driving without auto insurance now cost more than the insurance itself.

And gosh forbid if you don't pay on time--the penalties double the original fine and then go up from there.

Is there anything more pernicious, malicious and immoral that this criminalization of poverty to engorge the coffers of local government? If John Q. Citizen defaults on his credit card, he might have to endure harrassing phone calls from bill collectors. But worst case, he can unplug his phone or cancel that number and get another phone number. Fortunately, the bank cannot have him imprisoned (yet).

But local government isn't quite as kind and gentle as the bankers. Mess with their revenues (i.e. don't pay the hefty fines they levy) and they'll haul your carcass into court and then into jail (can't make bail? Too bad. You're a full-blown criminal now.)

Exactly what is the difference between racking up $1,000 in fines off an innocuous violation and being imprisoned for lack of payment and a 19th century-era Debtors prison?

Isn't this part of the reason why the Parisian mobs tore down the Bastille?

Does this make any sense at all, arresting people who can't pay their nonsensically stupendous fines and penalties just so government employees don't have to take a cut in pay and benefits? When did a ticket go from $50 to $300 and up? And why? Does anyone think the cost leaped up "for the public good"?

Is getting nailed for a ticket you can't pay really a deterrent to being too poor to keep your auto insurance current?

Let's follow this all the way to the end. Now that John Q. Citizen is in jail because he was nabbed driving without insurance and a big fat fine is outstanding, aren't the taxpayers throwing away $50,000 to $100,000 a year to process his tortured journey through the Kafkaesque court and jail system with those other "dangerous criminals"?

Hey, the war-on-drugs/prison/gulag pays very well, thank you, and filling cells with Mr. Citizen is just grist for the mill.

Now when Mr. Citizen is released (darn it, we can't get blood from a turnip!), his car has been impounded and he owes the towing yard $1,000 which he doesn't have. So he no longer has a car to get to work, or even drive to an interview.

OK, so maybe he was irresponsible in not setting aside enough money for the car insurance. Is that now a criminal offense? Is this the best use of police officers, judges, jails and the "justice" system? Is anyone being deterred by the ruthless criminalization of poverty? Please make the case for that, local politicos and bureaucrats.

Great work, local government. You've not only stolen the citizen's last few dollars, you've also deprived him of his employment opportunities and livelihood.

Here's a thought: you need more tax revenue? Then make the case to the citizens at the ballot box to pay more. Prove you're not squandering the tax money you're already getting by the boatload. Show us how you're going to spend our money as carefully as we do.

If you really want to stripmine somebody's cash assets, why not start with your local Wal-Mart? I can guarantee you they won't leave town when you enact a new ordinance taxing all retail establishments of 50,000 square feet or more.

Or impose a tax on all homes worth more than triple the median price in your zip code. You want to nail somebody with higher taxes? Then go after the top 5% who still have assets. Don't trawl the streets for the folks who can least afford your rapacious imposition of authority.

Bankers aren't the only rapacious greedheads in this nation. Look no farther than city hall, the county building and the State capitol. Just hope it isn't you who runs low on cash and gets nailed with that $395 ticket which soon morphs into $695 and an arrest warrant.

You can't blame local government avarice on Washington or the bankers. All this greed is homegrown, local and entirely unnecessary. As it stands now, 10% or maybe even 20% of the citizenry will soon have outstanding arrest warrants for what amounts to local government Debtors Prison.

Come November 2010, we can only pray that the citizenry "takes care of business" at the ballot box, and all the incumbent politicos who approved this evil criminalization of poverty get tossed out en masse, regardless of party affiliation.

Blackwater claims they're authorized to use lethal force in U.S.

The Examiner's Jim Kouri reports Kentucky’s Lexington Police Department contracted Blackwater Security International to provide what’s described as homeland security training.

Lexington is on the nation’s list of so-called Sanctuary Cities in which police officers are prohibited from working with ICE or Border Patrol agents in the United States.

Kouri claims Lexington isn’t the only city using hired guns to help local police officers. In New Orleans, heavily armed operatives from the Blackwater private security firm are openly patrolling the streets. Some of the mercenaries were reportedly “deputized” by the Louisiana governor and were issued gold Louisiana State law enforcement badges to wear on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards to be worn on their arms, says Kouri.

Kouri reports that while they are working in Louisiana, Blackwater officials say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force if necessary. Some of the mercenaries assigned to patrol the streets of New Orleans recently returned from Iraq, where they provided personal security details for the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.